Cloudy Sunday
by Radi Berra
Summary: Judai is gazing at the clouds before a thunderstorm. Asuka finds him and wonders why he likes cloud gazing so much. Then they get rained on and take refuge in Judai's dorm until the storm passes. [JxAish, fluffish]


It was a cloudy Sunday morning at Duel Academia.

Most students were still asleep in their dorms. However, there was a handful of students that had awoken to the feeble ray of sunshine that had penetrated their bedroom windows.

Tenjoin Asuka was one of these early risers. She pulled off her pajamas and changed into her school uniform, even though the term wasn't set to begin until the following morning. She, like many students at the Academia, felt more at home with the uniform on. After brushing her teeth and snatching a muffin from the spacious eating hall of Obelisk Blue, she headed outside, not really knowing where she was headed.

She had been walking for about five minutes before she realized that her feet had carried her to the bridge that led to the Osiris dorms.

She smiled wryly as she crossed the bridge. Sho and Kenzan were likely to be awake, but Judai was probably still asleep. Manjoume was still bitter about the new freshman, Rei Saotome, taking his new suite, so he wouldn't be leaving his old dorm room any time soon. Still, she wanted to be with her close friends that day, and she would wait until they were all awake if she had to.

It came as a bit of a surprise when she knocked on Judai's door and found a tired Sho, still in his pajamas, rubbing his eyes. She didn't hear Judai's infamous snores behind him.

"Asuka?" Sho said confusedly, placing his spectacles on his nose. "What are you doing here this early?"

"I'm sorry for waking you, Sho," Asuka said, smiling apologetically. "I just felt like coming out here to hang out with you guys today."

"Oh… well, come in." Sho held the door open for her. Still smiling, she stepped into the small room, left her shoes at the door, and sat at the desk in the corner.

A bright yellow bandana peeked over the top of the triple bunk bed. "Asuka-sempai!" The muscular form of Kenzan Tyranno slid off the bed and landed with a dull thud on the carpet below.

"Hello, Kenzan," Asuka said. She looked behind him at the empty bunk and frowned. "Where is Judai?"

Sho turned to look at the neatly made bed. He had been confused when Asuka had knocked on the door, but his confusion had mounted when he had noticed that Judai was not in his bed. What was more, Judai had actually _made up the bed _before leaving for wherever he had gone.

"I'm not sure," Sho said, frowning slightly now. "He was gone when I woke up. He left this note." He held up a piece of paper with some words scribbled on it. _Be back soon, don't worry. Judai._

"Well, maybe he just went for a morning walk or something," Asuka suggested gently.

Kenzan looked at her incredulously. "A _morning walk_?" he repeated. "_Aniki_?"

"It takes long enough to get Aniki out of bed for class in the mornings," Sho said, shaking his head.

"Well, if he said that he'll be back soon, he will be," Asuka said firmly.

There was a moment of silence. Finally, Kenzan spoke. "I'm going to go have some breakfast-don. Would you like to come, Asuka-sempai?"

"No, I already ate," Asuka said, her smile returning. "Thank you, though. I'll be back here in a bit. See you guys later."

Sho and Kenzan both bade Asuka farewell and headed toward the Osiris cafeteria.

Asuka's grin widened as she wondered how long it would take Sho to realize that he'd forgotten to change out of his pajamas.

Asuka wandered absentmindedly toward the hill that lay near the Osiris dorms. The sky above was darkening with every step she took. It was supposed to storm that morning, but clear up by the afternoon. She had a vague feeling that Judai was either on top of the hill or on the other side of it.

_Yuki Judai,_ she thought, shaking her head as she began to climb up the hill. _Why did you go for a walk when you knew it was supposed to storm? _It was just like him to try to get the best view of the impending thunderstorm, she decided.

Sure enough, when she had reached the top of the hill, the brunette was lying on his back with his hands behind his head, gazing at the gray sky. He was wearing his bright red blazer, which didn't surprise Asuka in the least, as he was rarely seen without it. He didn't seem to notice Asuka approaching, so when she sat next to him, he jumped slightly.

"Asuka!" he said, laughing. "You startled me."

"How long have you been here, Judai?" Asuka asked.

The boy shrugged, and turned back to staring at the sky. "I don't know. A while, I guess."

Asuka waited for him to say something to explain why he was even on the hill, but after a moment of silence, she decided he wasn't going to say anything more.

"So, what are you doing, Judai?" she asked.

Judai pointed unnecessarily at the sky. "Cloud gazing," he said vaguely.

Sure she had misheard him, Asuka repeated the simple phrase. "_Cloud gazing_?"

"Sure." Judai looked sideways at her. "Haven't you ever looked at the clouds right before a big thunderstorm?"

"Um…" Truthfully, the idea of going outside to watch the beginnings of a thunderstorm had never crossed her mind. "No, I can't say I have."

Judai frowned at her and turned back to the sky. "You've missed out. It's really cool."

Asuka wasn't so sure about that. "Do you watch the thunderclouds often?"

Judai smiled reminiscently. "Whenever I can." He laughed again. "You know, it seems like whenever it thunderstorms at Duel Academia, something bad happens." His smile faded slowly. "Like when Kagemaru got the Sangenma, or when Daitokuji-sensei…" He broke off, looking sad. Asuka knew why. Daitokuji had been like a student himself. He was laid-back, friendly, and encouraged the Osiris students, who had been scoffed at by the Obelisks and even some Ras, to pursue their dreams. Asuka doubted whether there was a student at Duel Academia who had liked and admired Daitokuji as much as Judai did. Daitokuji's death had probably impacted him most. She was fixing to say something to comfort him when Judai abruptly spoke.

"Anyway, we never did get a new Osiris teacher." He sighed. Then his face brightened again. "Maybe we will this year! I hope things become normal again. There was too much happening last year, with the Genex tournament and Saiou… We didn't even have time for class! Not that I minded much," he added as an afterthought. "I don't like doing homework."

Asuka hid her grin with difficulty.

"Oh, Asuka?" Judai turned back to her. "I forgot to tell you. Remember when Saiou brainwashed you and turned you into that crazy, mean White Asuka?"

Asuka, who was not likely to forget that incident any time soon, merely nodded.

"Well, I wanted to apologize."

"For what?" Asuka asked, confused.

Judai resumed his cloud gazing. "I never bothered to try to save you from Saiou until you wanted the key. I know you don't remember what happened when you were part of the Kessha and only know what we told you afterward, but you really scared me. I should have tried to get you back way before that. I'm sorry I never made an effort."

Asuka didn't quite know how to respond to that. "In the end, you did get me back," she said, choosing her words carefully. "So I should thank you for that."

Judai smiled, but he didn't say anything. He continued to stare at the slowly darkening sky.

Asuka slipped down on the ground next to Judai and stared at the swirling mass of clouds. Regardless of how "cool" Judai thought it was, all Asuka could think about was a bolt of lightning coming to hit the hill, and she cleared her throat nervously.

"Um… Judai, are you sure this is safe…?"

Judai looked over at her again with a surprised expression on his face. "Of course." He sat up and gestured at the ground around them. The ground they were lying on was slightly charred. "The hill has already been hit by lightning. Haven't you ever heard the phrase 'lightning never strikes twice in the same place'?"

Asuka shifted uncomfortably. "Judai, that's not necessarily true…"

"It isn't?" Judai looked alarmed for a minute, but his face cleared quickly. "Oh well, what are the odds it will happen?" And he plopped back down on the ground.

Sighing inwardly, Asuka laid back as well.

Silence passed between the two. Asuka couldn't help but wonder _why_ Judai liked to stare at the threatening sky so much, but before she could ask, he finally spoke again.

"You know, I've been having really weird dreams lately," he said, frowning at the sky.

"What kinds of dreams?" Asuka asked.

Judai propped himself up to a near-sitting position with his elbows. "I'm always in a desert. I can see Duel Academia in the distance, but no one is in sight. I call out, but no one answers." He shuddered. "Then, a shadow looms behind me, so I turn around. It's a… a monster, wearing armor." He shook his head. "It was the same vision that Saiou showed me. I've been dreaming about it almost every night ever since. I can't sleep well through it, so I've just been waking up early every morning." He sighed. "I came up to the hill to relax."

"Did I interrupt your relaxation?" Asuka asked, starting to sit up.

"No!" Judai exclaimed, grabbing her arm. "No, I like it better with someone here. Please stay."

"Okay." Asuka laid back down. "But first, tell me what it is you're doing up here anyway."

"Look." Judai pointed at a swirling cloud. "Doesn't it look like Burst Lady and Featherman fusing?"

Asuka followed his finger and stared at the swirling mass. In spite of her doubts about their safety, and about Judai's sanity, she couldn't help but agree. It _did _look somewhat like Judai's star monsters fusing. She nodded. "Yeah, it does…"

_This must be why he likes the clouds. _

"I like to come up here sometimes and see what shapes I can find in the clouds," Judai said brightly. "There's a baseball bat." He pointed. "I played baseball when I was little. I broke my leg playing once."

"That's too bad," Asuka said.

Judai shrugged again. "It's okay. If I hadn't been in the hospital, I might not have become interested in Duel Monsters."

Asuka was about to ask him why, but he interrupted with a laugh. "There's a dragon! How neat!" He turned to the girl next to him. "How about you? Do you see anything in the clouds?"

Asuka hesitated. She hadn't really been thinking about the clouds. "Um… not really."

"Come on, Asuka!" Judai urged. "You have to see _something _in the sky!"

"Well…" Asuka peered at the misshapen cloud directly above her. _What does it look like? _"A... heart?"

As soon as she had said it, her cheeks turned slightly pink. Fortunately, Judai didn't seem to have noticed. He looked thoughtfully at the cloud and shook his head.

"It looks more like a duel disk to me," he decided firmly.

Asuka stifled a laugh.

"How's Fubuki-san?" Judai asked suddenly.

Asuka looked taken aback by this sudden question. "He's… fine, I guess."

"Is he going into the Pro Leagues?" Judai inquired.

"He's only doing minor dueling, I think," Asuka said. "He told me he's not quite ready for the intensity of the Pro Leagues. Most Pro League duelists are out to win at any cost, but my brother just wants to have fun and look good while doing it." She glanced at the Osiris boy next to her. "Besides, I think he's still occupied with what happened to Ryo when he joined the Pro Leagues."

Before Judai could say anything, a streak of lightning filled the sky, followed closely by an ear-splitting clap of thunder. Asuka jerked to a sitting position and clutched instinctively at the ground. Judai merely laughed and also sat up.

"That was a good one," he commented idly. "Nice and loud."

Asuka's breath was hitched in her throat, and her heart was thudding. She couldn't understand why Judai was so happy with the deadly weather.

"Judai-" she began weakly, but she was interrupted a second time – this time by a sprinkle of rain in her face that quickly turned into a very cold, very heavy rainfall.

Judai was still laughing, though he was drenched to the bone within ten seconds. His shaggy hair was clinging to his head, dripping water into his chocolate-colored eyes. Asuka began to shiver as a strong wind picked up. Her wet and scraggly hair was sticking to her face. She attempted to wipe some of the freezing water out of her face, but to no avail; the rain was simply coming down too fast and too hard. The wind was picking up, which didn't help matters either.

Judai glanced over at her and his smile faltered. She looked frozen; she was definitely shivering uncontrollably and her teeth were chattering. He shucked off his blazer and draped it around her shoulders. She looked up at him in surprise. She was still shivering, but her upper body was now more protected from the wind. She decided to pull the jacket on all the way to prevent it from blowing off her shoulders. He stood up and held out a hand.

"We should get back to the dorms," he suggested, speaking loudly over the roaring wind. Another thunder clap and lightning flash filled the air.

She hesitated for the briefest of seconds. Judai's black shirt, which was already fairly form-fitting, was sticking tightly to his body. His hair was dripping, his arms were covered in goose bumps, and his nose was red. Still, he looked as happy as he did when he was in the middle of a particularly exciting duel.

_There's more to you than meets the eye, Yuki Judai,_ she thought, holding her hand out to him.

He grasped it and pulled her to her feet. She expected him to let go of her hand once she was standing, but he retained his grip. He grinned, and she felt herself being pulled gently along as he walked quickly toward the Osiris Red dorms. As soon as they were safely down the hill, he broke into a run, still clutching her hand. She lurched in surprise at first, but quickly regained her composure. He turned to look at her as they ran. She couldn't help but laugh at the expression on his face; he looked as though he were having the time of his life. Even the thunder clapping and lightning flashes seemed distant now.

After a few minutes, they reached his room. He finally let go of Asuka's hand and opened the door. Sho and Kenzan weren't there – he assumed they had gone to breakfast and decided not to leave due to the thunderstorm.

He walked into the room, slipped off his shoes, and held open the door for Asuka. She hesitated on the threshold.

"You'll get sick if you stand out there any longer," Judai reminded her. "You can stay here and dry off until the storm passes."

She nodded and followed him inside, slipping her muddy shoes off again in the process. He shut the door and locked it. At her suspicious expression, he frowned. He wasn't sure why she would be wary about the door being locked – he was, after all, only making sure that the wind didn't blow open the door. Why else would he lock the door?

"What's wrong?" he asked.

Asuka eyed the door. "Why'd you lock it?"

He strode toward the cabinet and began rummaging around. "It's to make sure that the door doesn't open. The doors are kind of… what's the word?" He straightened up and frowned again, clearly deep in thought. "Sh… shady? Shacky? Shooty?"

"Shoddy?" she suggested gently. _There's no need to worry about Judai trying anything funny, _she decided.

Judai's face brightened. "That's the word! I was close." He resumed his digging in the cabinet and finally produced a fluffy towel. "Here! It's the softest one we have." He looked at it thoughtfully. "Manjoume left it lying around. I don't know where he got it though, 'cause our towels aren't as fluffy as this one… it is clean, though!" he added, correctly interpreting Asuka's weary expression.

"Well, okay," Asuka said. The towel was clean enough, and it reminded her of the towels at the Obelisk dorms. (In fact, she had a sneaking suspicion that she knew where Manjoume had gotten the towel in the first place.) She held out a hand to take the towel, but Judai leaned closer and slid his soaked blazer off her shoulders. She felt a tingle sweep through her body that had nothing to do with the cold.

Judai turned to the hook on the wall and hung the jacket from it. It dripped slowly onto the carpet. He turned back to the shivering Obelisk girl standing in the middle of the room and draped the towel around her shoulders. He led her gently to his bed, where she sat down. She inclined her head slightly to avoid hitting it on the bunk above. He sat down opposite her, in the chair next to his desk.

"Aren't you going to dry off?" Asuka asked.

Judai shrugged. "I'll be okay."

"I don't think it's a good idea for you to be sitting there in wet clothes," Asuka said firmly. "_You'll_ get sick, and that's the _last _thing you need right before your third year even starts."

Judai sighed. "You're right."

And without another word, he peeled his wet shirt from his body, leaving him sitting there, wearing only the jeans that were still wet and sticking to his thin legs.

Asuka glanced away quickly.

Judai, who didn't seem to realize that he'd done something wrong, simply stared out the window. "It's still pouring," he said wistfully.

"Don't you have some dry clothes you can change into?" Asuka suggested.

Judai shook his head. "It's laundry day. I took all my clothes to get washed this morning. I was going to pick them up after breakfast, but then I saw the clouds and I lost track of time…" He nodded at the towel. "That's the last towel we have in here." He frowned again. "I just _wish _I knew where Manjoume got it."

Another awkward silence fell between the two. Judai tilted back and forth with his chair. Suddenly, the legs of the chair thudded as he jumped up eagerly. "We should have a duel! That would pass the time!" He grinned. "We haven't had a real duel, me and you, since our first week here. That duel when you were in the Hikari no Kessha doesn't count, since it wasn't your deck and you weren't even you, really. Even though you don't have a duel disk with you, we can duel the old-fashioned way."

Asuka fumbled around her waist for her deck case. Unhitching it, she pulled out her deck and returned the grin. "All right, Yuki Judai. I've wanted a rematch for a long time now." She slid down onto the floor.

He grabbed his deck and scrambled to the floor across from her. "Get ready; I'm even stronger than I was that day we first met."

"As am I, Judai."

They both smiled at each other.

"Duel!"

The rain was coming down in trickles as the duel came to an end. The sky was a lighter shade of gray and the sun was peeking through gaps in the clouds. It was now ten-thirty in the morning, and most of the school was awake.

Asuka sighed as Judai's Glow Neos's attack took out the rest of her life points.

"I won! What a fun duel!" Judai said, flashing his victory sign and grinning broadly. "You really _have _gotten better, Asuka! I was worried there for a bit."

Asuka gathered her cards together. "I'm still not good enough to beat you, Judai," she said, shaking her head. "But one day, _one day_… I will defeat you." She snatched up the Glow Neos lying on the floor and peered at it. "I think I deserve a consolation prize," she said thoughtfully. "What do you think?"

"But- but I'm the only one with the fusion material monsters for that card!" Judai spluttered, holding out his hand for it and leaning forward.

As he leaned forward, his wet jeans slid on the floor, and he tumbled forward, nearly knocking over Asuka. He landed clumsily on top of her and laughed. She laughed as she tried to disentangle herself from him, still holding the card out of his reach. Their faces were centimeters apart.

Just then, the door opened, and Sho and Kenzan burst in, both only slightly damp. Asuka and Judai froze.

"Aniki, _there _you are, we've been wondering where you've-"

Sho's admonition was cut short as he stared at the strange scene in front of him.

Judai was lying on top of Asuka, wearing only a pair of wet jeans. His shirt, which was also wet, was lying in a crumpled heap not far away. His blazer was steadily dripping water from its spot on the coat hook by the door. Asuka was also wet, though drier than Judai, and a towel was lying next to her. Cards were scattered around the two.

"What have you been doing-saurus?" Kenzan demanded. "Playing strip-dueling? Only… with more strip and less dueling?" he added, wrinkling his nose.

"Whaaaat?" Judai asked, puzzled. "No, we were just outside, looking at the clouds, and it started raining. We got wet and came back here. Asuka was going to head back to change into dry clothes after the rain stopped. And… she took my Glow Neos. I was trying to get it back."

Sho's confusion lifted, though he was still somewhat baffled by the fact that the two seemed to have been wrestling for the card. "Oh. Well, it's stopping right now."

Asuka finally managed to disentangle herself from Judai. "Oh! Okay, thanks. I'll just… go change now. See you later, guys." She walked past the two Ra boys and started to walk out the door.

Judai waved, beaming. "I had fun today, Asuka. Thanks."

Asuka turned back and looked inside the room. "Same here, Judai. Oh, here." She tossed the card back into the room and smiled. She disappeared across the bridge as she began jogging back to the Obelisk dorms.

_Maybe I'll look at the clouds more often, _she thought

Judai gathered his deck into a neat stack and set it back in its case. Sho cleared his throat.

"You were looking at the _clouds_?"

Judai nodded. "They're really cool when it's about to thunderstorm. But you know," he added thoughtfully, "they're cooler when you have someone there to enjoy them with you."

**Fin**


End file.
